3 Nor can my tongue pronounce a word, How secretly soe'er 'twere said, But in thine ear it shall be heard, And by thy judgment shall be weigh'd. 4 In every particle I see

The fashion of thy plastic hand: 5 Knowledge too excellent for me, Me, wretched man, to understand.

6 Whither, ah! whither then can I From thine all present spirit go?

7 To Heav'n? 'tis there thou'rt thron'd on high: To Hell? 'tis there thou rul'st below.

Lend me, O Morning, lend me wings!
On the first beam of op'ning day
To the last wave, that ocean flings
On the world's shore, I'll flit away.

9 Ah fool! if there I meant to hide,
For thou, my God, shalt reach me there
Ev'n there thy hand shall be my guide,
Thy right hand hold me in its care.

10 Again, if calling out for night,

I bid it shroud me from thine eyes,
Thy presence makes a burst of light,
And darkness to the centre hies.

11 Nay, darkness cannot intervene
Betwixt the universe and Thee;
Light or no light, there's nought I ween,
God self-illumin'd cannot see.

12 Thine is each atom of my frame;
Thy fingers strung my inmost reins,
E'en in the womb, or e'er I came
To life, and caus'd a mother's pains.

13 Oh! what a fearful work is man!
A wonder of creative art!

My God, how marvellous thy plan!
"Tis character'd upon my heart.

14 My very bones, tho' deep conceal'd
And buried in this living clay,

Are to thy searching sight reveal'd
As clear as in the face of day.

15 That eye, which thro' creation darts,
My substance, yet imperfect, scan'd,
And in thy books my embryo parts
Were written and their uses plan'd.

16 Ere Time to shape and fashion drew
These ductile members one by one,
Into man's image ere they grew,
Thy great prospective work was done.
17 O God! how gracious, how divine,
How dear thy counsels to my soul!
Myriads to myriads cou'd I join,
They'd fail to number up the whole.

18 I might as well go tell the sand,
And count it over grain by grain:
No; in thy presence let me stand,
And waking with my God remain.

19 Wilt thou not, Lord, avenge the good!
Shall not blasphemers be destroy'd?
Depart from me, ye men of blood,
Hence murderer, and my sight avoid!

20 Loud are their hostile voices heard
To take thy sacred name in vain :
21 Am I not griev'd? Doth not each word
Wring my afflicted heart with pain?

Doth not my zealous soul return
Hatred for hatred to thy foes?
22 Yea, Lord! I feel my bosom burn,
As tho' against my peace they rose.

23 Try me, dread Power! and search my heart; Lay all its movements in thy view;

Explore it to its inmost part,
Nor spare it, if 'tis found untrue.

24 If devious from thy paths I stray,
And wickedness be found with me,
Oh! lead me back the better way
To everlasting life and Thee.

NUMBER LXI.

THE deistical writers, who would fain persuade us that the world was in possession of as pure a system of morality before the introduction of Christianity as since, affect to make a great display of the virtues of many eminent heathens, particularly of the philosophers, Socrates, Plato, and some others.

When they set up these characters as examples of perfection, which human nature with the aids of revelation either has not attained to, or not exceeded, they put us upon an invidious task, which no man would voluntarily engage in, and challenge us to discuss a question, which, if thoroughly agitated, cannot fail to strip the illustrious dead of more than half the honours which the voice of ages has agreed to give them.

It is therefore to be wished that they had held the argument to its general terms, and shewn us where that system of ethics is to be found, which they are prepared to bring into comparison with the moral doctrines of Christ. This I take to be the fair ground whereon the controversy should have been decided, and here it would infallibly have been brought to issue; but they knew their weapons better than to trust them in so close a conflict.

The maxims of some heathen philosophers, and the moral writings of Plato, Cicero, and Seneca, contain many noble truths, worthy to be held in veneration by posterity; and if the deist can from these produce a system of morality as pure and perfect as that which claims its origin from divine re

velation, he will prove that God gave to man a faculty of distinguishing between right and wrong with such correctness, that his own immediate revelation added no lights to those, which the powers of reason had already discovered. Let us grant therefore for a moment, that Christ's religion revealed to the world no new truths in morality, nor removed any old errors, and what triumph accrues to the deist by the admission? The most he gains is to bring reason to a level with revelation, as to its moral doctrines; in so doing he dignifies man's nature, and shews how excellent a faculty God gave his creatures in their original formation, to guide their judgments and control their actions; but will this diminish the importance of revealed religion? Certainly not, unless he can prove one or both of the following positions; viz.

First, That the moral tenets of Christianity either fall short of, or run counter to, the moral tenets of natural religion; or,

Secondly, That Christ's mission was nugatory and superfluous, because the world was already in possession of as good a system of morality as he imparted to mankind.

As to the first, I believe it has never been attempted by any heathen or deistical advocate to convict the Gospel system of false morality, or to allege that it is short and defective in any one particular duty, when compared with that system which the world was possest of without its aid. No man, I believe, has controverted its truths, though many have disputed its discoveries: No man has been hardy enough to say of any of its doctrines-This we ought not to practise; though many have been vain enough to cry out-All this we knew before.Let us leave this position therefore for the present, and pass to the next, viz. Whether Christ's mis

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sion was nugatory and superfluous, because the world already knew as much morality as he taught them.

This will at once be answered, if the Gospel as, sertion be established, that life and immortality were brought to light. We need not adduce any other of the mysteries of revelation; we may safely rest the question here, and say with the apostle to the Gentile world-Behold! I shew you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed; in a mo ment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump (for the trumpet shall sound) and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. Mark to how short an issue the argument is now brought! Either the apostle is not warranted in calling this a mystery, or the deist is not warranted in calling Christ's inission nugatory and superfluous.

It now rests with the deist to produce from the writings and opinions of mankind antecedent to Christianity, such a revelation of things to come, as can fully anticipate the Gospel revelation, or else to admit with the apostle that a mistery was shewn; and if the importance of this mystery be admitted, as it surely must, the importance of Christ's mission can no longer be disputed; and though revelation shall have added nothing to the heathen system of mo. rality, still it does not follow that it was superfluous and nugatory.

Let the deist resort to the heathen Elysium and the realms of Pluto in search of evidences, to set in competition with the Christian revelation of a future state; let him call in Socrates, Plato, and as many more as he can collect in his cause; it is but lost labour to follow the various tracks of reason through the pathless ocean of conjecture, always wandering, though with different degrees of deviation. What does it avail, though Seneca had taught as good